


Profit

by Nope



Category: Smallville
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-05-11
Updated: 2003-05-11
Packaged: 2018-11-06 03:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11027247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nope/pseuds/Nope
Summary: What does it profit a man to gain the world, if he should lose his only son?





	Profit

He moved before the flash. The impact was surprisingly painless. The floor slid away. Hands touched him. He saw Lex's mouth move, shape a word. There was something wrong with the light. The thunder of the gunshot/

 

/ringing in his ears, he dropped to his hands and knees in front of her desk. Sharp clicking cut through the pain. He raised his head a little. Through the hanging fringe, he watched the high heeled shoes stop before him.

"Luthor's do not beg, Lionel."

His eyes stung.

"Luthor's do not bend."

Heat throbbed in his cheek.

"Luthor's do not break."

He touched his tongue to his teeth.

"Get up, boy."

They felt loose.

"Have you no pride at all?"

Long fingers buried themselves painfully in his hair, yanking his head up to meet the/

 

/blue of Martha's eyes turned icy by anger, colour flaring in her cheeks.

"Have you lost all feeling? Is compassion just a word to you?"

"This melodrama is below you, Martha."

"We're parents, we're supposed to teach by example! And what are you teaching him? For God's sake, he's your son."

"Exactly." He smiled thinly. "He is my/

 

/son. What a pleasant surprise."

He waved away the receptionist hanging anxiously in the doorway and fixed his amused gaze on Lex. His wayward son tossed a file in front of him.

"What is this?"

He picked it up, opened it, and took out the top photo, holding it up to the light. "My, what a disreputable fellow this appears to be."

"He's been sniffing around the Kents. Is it not enough you have me jumping through hoops?" The sheer control in Lex's tone revealed everything it was intended to conceal. "You have to go after my, my friend too?"

"Not everything is about you, Lex."

But, of course, it/

 

/was only a matter of moments to set the charges. He wired the last one in and stood, brushing off his hands. It was a shame. So much of his work lay burned in ones and zeros inside these machines. But the problem with working with unstable men was the necessity of removing all ties to them. Loose ends were--

A gun was cocked behind him.

"I don't think you want to do that, Mister/

 

/Luthor?" She tugged harder. "Well? Are you dumb as well as stupid, boy?"

"No, Mother." He wanted to blink, clear his eyes, couldn't break her gaze. He hadn't heard the question. "I'm sorry, I--"

She slapped him again, the other cheek this time. He fell back and she came in fast, catching him in the chest with a sharp toed shoe. "You spineless, snivelling, brat. I can't believe I gave birth to such a pathetic little weakling."

He gasped/

 

/for breath, reaching out a hand as Lex/

 

/crouched next to him, one gloved hand hanging, almost touching the floor.

"Eighteen hours I lay there on that table," she said softly, lips close to his ear. "Eighteen hours of twisting, screaming agony before I could shit you out into the world like the loathsome turd you are. You were a shrivelled pink screaming thing then, and you're still one now. You're nothing. You'll never be anything."

He tried to speak and she squeezed her fingers hard around his mouth, distorting his words into a meaningless garble.

"Did I say you could speak? Do you really think anything you could say could take back the shame you've brought upon me, upon this family? Come on, boy. Where's that smart tongue of yours? I ask you again, what/

 

/does it profit--"

"Are you trying to sway me with proverbs, Mrs. Kent?"

He turned away and she came around the desk, leaning over him, hands on either arm of his chair. "It's all costs and benefits, right? It's all business?"

"It's just business," he agreed.

"Then you tell me, Lionel, what does it profit a man to gain the world if he should lose his only/

 

/son?"

"He's right here."

"If you've harmed--"

"He's fine, Luthor. I needed him as bait. He's got an alien boyfriend with superpowers to come save him, remember? And when he does, I'll be able to complete the job you paid/

 

/me, to what, torture the kid?"

"Nothing so mundane. I have a use for him; but I always feel it best to test the merchandise before I buy."

"Speed, strength, sees through walls... looks like you've got your research already."

"There are holes. It doesn't hurt to double check these things. Taking a risk is one thing; taking unnecessary risks is simply bad business."

"It's not going to be easy. You sure about this weakness to meteor rocks?"

"That's why I hired you."

"To test the product."

"To destruction, if necessary."

"Geez. A real live/

 

/alien?"

"Tell me again how well you know your friend, son." Luthor tapped the screen, watching Lex's eyes scan rapidly down it. "Tell me how honourable your little farm boy is."

"He's worth a thousand of you."

"He's not even human, Lex. Come on. Do you think I haven't seen the way you look at/

 

/Clark! Get out of here!" yelled Lex, on his side on the floor, struggling against his other restraints. "He's got kryptonite bullets! Get away from/

 

/him? Do you think I can't recognise obsession when I see it?"

"Obsession," repeated Lex, flatly. "Is that what this is?"

"You wanted to know the truth as much as I did. And here it is, in all its unvarnished glory."

"Why did you do this?"

"Why? It's business, Lex. You should always know the exact value of your assets."

"Clark is not something to be bought and sold!"

"Of course he is! They all are, Lex. Everyone is after something."

"Clark is--"

"Even Clark. Especially Clark."

"He's/

 

/your boyfriend?" he asked.

Lex said nothing, ignoring the laughter.

"You should pay more attention to your surveillance tapes, Mister Luthor."

Lex's face was empty but his eyes gave him away. They always did.

"You're mistaken. I should have paid more attention to/

 

/my son is none of your concern."

"You should be glad he's someone's," yelled Martha back, "that some one is thinking about what you're doing to him!"

Shoving herself away from him, turned on her heel and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind/

 

/her desk, face twisting. "Get out of my sight. You worthless, hapless filth. You disgust me. Go on, take your pitiful excuses, your pathetic whining, and your wet whimpering and get the hell out of my sight."

She turned her chair to face the window, dismissing. He stumbled towards the door, clutching his sore ribs.

"And get a haircut. Just because you act like an untrained mongrel doesn't mean you have to look like one."

He gave no reply and reached for the/

 

/phone, Martha's words echoing in his head.

What did it profit him? It was business. What was the opportunity cost? What did he lose by taking this path?

If he's hurt, said Lex in his head, I'll kill you myself. And in his eyes...

First law. Doubt crippled you. If you can't handle the consequences, don't take the risks.

And he could wait. He had time. All the time in the world.

He dialled. It was picked up on the first ring.

"There's been a change of/

 

/plans, you think you can just turn round and cancel on me?"

He ignored the ranting, the waving gun, fingers touching the metal switch in his pocket, thinking, all my research. All my work. Costs and benefits.

"Well, you'll see. This is what you/

 

/wanted, Lex. What I've always wanted. For you to stand at my right hand. A son I could be justly proud of."

"What have you--?"

"Everything I have done, I have done out of love for you, son. Why do you persist in defying me?"

"What have you done?" demanded Lex again, reaching for him. "What have you/

 

/done?"

"You wanted me to make something of myself mother." He smiled, standing easily over her.

"How dare you? How can you defy me like this?"

"Love, Mother. I'm sure you've heard of the concept."

"What is this? This... this tramp! She's not good enough for you, boy. No one is. You're a Luthor!"

"Yes. And tomorrow, so will Lillian be, Mother."

"She's weak! They're all weak! She'll breed weak, pathetic children!"

"Goodbye, Mother. The home will be along shortly to fetch you."

"You bastard! You're nothing without me, Lionel! Nothing! She'll be the death of you! Lionel! What do you have? What do you have, Lionel? What's left for you? Lionel! Don't walk away from me! Lionel! I'm talking to you! Do you hear me?! LIONEL!"

He smiled and kept walking without/

 

/warning the door smashed inwards and a blur resolved into Clark and Lex kicked out at his captor and yelled, throwing himself sideways, and in all the distraction, no one heard the click of a switch closing.

The computer banks behind the gun man/

 

/exploded, overturning the desk, scattering the papers all around them. Glass smashed.

Lex was breathing hard and, for a moment, he thought Lex was going to hit him, but his son instead growled "If he's hurt, I'll kill you myself."

The look in Lex's eyes shook him but, before he could speak, Lex had turned and stormed out of the office as fast as he had entered it, shoving past Martha on his way out.

"Lex?" she called after him, getting no response. She turned back. "Lionel?"

"Let him go, Martha."

She frowned, coming further into the office. "What did you do to set him/

 

/off in turn, showering them with burning sparks. He felt it, not physically, but a sudden rush of loss that caused a sympathetic/

 

/stabbing pain in his chest as Lex pulled him up, saying "Dad" over and over, and Clark/

 

/took a step forward, said "Everything's going to be okay, Mister Luthor." and the bleeding, broken man on the floor grunted and raised his weapon and Lex yelled and Clark glanced sideways and the finger closed on the trigger.

He moved before the/

 

/flash of the photographers as they cut the cake, and he turned to kiss Lillian, touching his hand to/

 

/his son's face.

"You saved him," said Lex, wonderingly, eyes bright in the rising darkness. "You saved us, Dad."

Flames crackled around them. Clark was leaning over. He felt himself being lifted off the floor.

"We'll get you to a hospital, Mister Luthor."

He didn't try to reply. The world was melting away and he was thinking about margins, about lines on graphs and numbers and the rise and fall of things. Thinking all these thoughts, all at once. About leverage and power, about information, about the importance of context. About an empire built on spite. About dragons and hoards, and all that he had gained. About holding the world in his grasp.

"Dad? Stay with us, Dad? Dad! DAD!"

His gaze drifted off. It was hard, so hard to let it all go. But he still had Lex, and he still had his soul, and that was enough.

More than enough.


End file.
